Blue or Gray?

How effective have the last-ditch air pollution control measures been? Who wants to place bets on whether the sky remains smoggy tomorrow?

Or will the Weather Modification Bureau ride to the rescue by drumming up some rain? (24 hours left, guys...)

In any case, there's still the issue of long-term solutions versus short-term measures. Could some of the money thrown at this problem in the last few months been used more effectively (e.g. clean production methods, more efficiency, pollution controls) over the last several years?

My prediction: Since practically everybody is staying home tomorrow -- no work, woohoo! -- the traffic, and possibly the sky, will be a whole lot lighter. But it's still going to take some natural phenomena to make it truly blue.

Photos from August 2007. -- Kevin

[I guess I ought to clarify... the extraordinary measures taken in recent months and days have been costly, for instance completely shutting down certain factories and power plants, etc. leading to lost income and the need to import power. Perhaps the costs incurred now could have been avoided by focused action earlier.]